By Russell Flannery

It isn’t easy to be very optimistic about Vermont’s economic future:  the state’s population is shrinking, steep taxes and bureaucracy hurt new investment and construction, and the state’s biggest city – Burlington – resembles a smaller version of San Francisco, battling homelessness and crime. 

And yet McNeil and Reedy, a traditional men’s fashion store, is upbeat. The Rutland-based retailer bought MK Clothing located on Church Street in downtown Burlington in July.  On October 3, McNeil & Reedy celebrated its 70^th anniversary with hundreds of customers and local luminaries at a celebration along Rutland’s Merchants Row. 

In an interview, Casey McNeil – the family-owned company’s third-generation leader – explained why he’s upbeat about the market for tailored men’s clothing and expansion into Burlington.  

“We’re finding a big uptick” in traditional tailored clothing, McNeil said. “It can be any brand, as long as it fits really well. The emphasis is on tailoring” which McNeil and Reedy along with MK Clothing specialize in.  The stores also sell ready-made suits and other men’s apparel.

The acquisition of the MK Clothing brand in Burlington traces to a long-time relationship between the owners of the two firms and partly to McNeil’s own knowledge of Burlington – he attended Champlain College and was a finance leader at National Life Group there for seven years before returning home to Rutland five years ago and joining the family business.

Being two of a small number of traditional men’s shops still standing in Vermont, McNeil & Reedy and MK Clothing were friends “for a long time,” McNeil said. “When the option to acquire the store came up, there was no hesitation,” he said.” 

“My goal was to keep another men’s shop alive. We’ve always found ourselves working well together with MK as stores, not as their competition.  Now we can really roll up as one and work even closer together,” he said.

As for downtown Burlington’s security and safety, McNeil said, “No, I’m not (worried.) “Sure, there are some issues on Church Street, but there are issues on every street.”

McNeil & Reedy has also been investing money into an upgrade at its Rutland store. “In Rutland, we just did a full renovation from floor to ceiling, and actually brought it back to what it was like in 1956 when we opened. We took out any real update that we had done over the last 70 years, tried to bring it back to what it was, and brought in a bunch of old antiques, some dating back to like the 1800s from New York City — just trying to make it feel like a 70-year-old men’s store.” 

Putting customers first has been at the center of the retailer’s success over the years. “Customer service is king. Everyone sells something, and really have to have good customer service and be friendly and treat everyone with respect. Then, people come back.”

What has been the secret of successful leadership transition of the family-run company into a third generation at McNeil and Reedy?  “Working well with family. It sometimes can be hard.”

“You go home at night and you see that same family member, but you have to respect what came before me. They respect where I’m trying to take it,” the younger McNeil said of his father James McNeil and uncle John McNeil – born twins. 

As for the staying power for the current interest in tailored suits, he said: “It’s one of those things that comes and goes. I think back to my grandfather’s vision when opening,” McNeil said.   Demand for tailoring is cyclical but “always comes back.”